


Sick

by daybreaks (chrisonfire)



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Angst, Blood As Lube, Body Horror, Gore, Hanahaki Disease, M/M, Mild Gore, Plant Gore, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 13:16:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17081003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrisonfire/pseuds/daybreaks
Summary: Nino finds his life in turmoil after a drunk game of truth or dare.





	Sick

It was another late night for Arashi. They had had a while off of work, and had decided to take a few weeks on a vacation. At the moment, Nino was having fun with the others. He laughed, drank, and teased everyone. Everything was going well. For the first time in a while they were having fun together, without stress.

And then his life changed irreparably once he said these words: “Let's play truth or dare!”

Everyone quickly agreed, laughing. Jun went first and asked Aiba, who happened to be the most plastered of them all. 

“Truth or Dare?”

“Dare!” Aiba yelled, excited.

“I dare you to lick anyone here's foot,” Jun said, laughing. 

“I'll do it!” Aiba responded, giggling. He was definitely a giggly drunk. “Nino!”

“Oh hell no.” Nino swung his feet up onto the couch he was currently lounging on. He laughed when Aiba tackled Sho and tore off his slippers. Nino took a large swig of vodka when Aiba licked the bottom of Sho's foot. The room dissolved into laughter.

“Jesus Christ!” Sho cursed as he flinched backwards, knocking over his drink. “Fuck!” He staggered into the kitchen to get paper towels.

“Nino! Truth or dare!” Aiba's every sentence sounded overly excited. Nino cursed inwardly.

“Um, truth.” He didn't really feel like licking feet.

“Do you like anyone?” Aiba asked. Nino kicked himself.

“What are you, a sixth grader?” Nino snorted.

“Answer!”

“No.”

“Dare!” Aiba cheered. Nino felt oddly offended. 

“Hey,” he complained. “You can't do that, I answered your question!”

“Yeah, but you probably lied! I dare you to, um…” Aiba looked at the wet spot on the ground. “Kiss Sho!”

Nino groaned. “Seriously, Aiba? I'm never letting you drink again.”

Sho walked back in, oblivious. Nino sighed deeply. He watched as his groupmate started cleaning. Standing, he stumbled towards the man. He tripped and fell in front of him.

Sho looked confused, but held out a hand to lift him up. Nino fell while trying to stand, leading to them both on the ground. This was it.

He leaned forward and kissed Sho, putting a hand on the back of his neck. Sho was clearly drunk, because he kissed back.  _ Hard. _ Nino quickly forgot where they were and pushed his tongue in, trying to taste every inch of Sho. He tasted like champagne.

“Hey, idiot, did you get dared to do this?” Sho yelled. His face was flushed, but he looked angry. Nino backed away, ashamed. He tried to stammer a response, looking away. 

“Wooo!” Aiba yelled. He sounded delighted. Nino pulled back, burning red.

“Shuddup, idiot, I'm drunk.” Nino laughed it off. Sho laughed it off too. Nobody thought any more of it. They continued to have a great evening.

But that night as they went to bed, Nino went into the bathroom. He was sick, as expected, but as he coughed afterwards he spat leaves onto the floor. He could feel more scratching at his throat, choking him, but drunk Nino swallowed hard and flushed them. Drunk Nino hoped he forgot all about this day.

 

Nino woke up with a burning headache. He sat up slowly. Looking at the clock, he saw that it was already midday. He groaned and took a drink from the bottle of water next to the bed. He scratched an itch on his arm. 

The itch burned him. It felt as if things were crawling under his skin. He scratched and scratched. His skin was numb by the time he scratched through it, blood flowing down his arm. He didn't even notice the blood before be opened his eyes again. He looked, gasped, and when he looked into the open wound he saw a small vine. His eyes widened. “What the fuck?”

Nino burst out of his room the moment he was dressed. At the noise, Jun opened his door. “Shut the hell up, Nino. We're all asleep.”

“Where are you going?” Aiba called from his own room.

“Out.” Nino tugged on a jacket and went outside.

He took a cab to the hospital. He waited patiently in the waiting room of the ER, leg jiggling with nerves as he tried to control his panic. Blood was soaking through his sleeve.

When he finally got in to see a doctor, he shoved his sleeve up my arm. “Look.”

He was shocked when he saw that the vine was growing up around him, and now tendrils curled around his wrist. He looked in horror. “It wasn't this long an hour ago!”

“Hanahaki,” the doctor said without preamble. “A disease that occurs when a love is unrequited.”

“I don't have any love in- how do I cure it?”

“There is no known cure.” Silence filled the room. “I can prescribe medications that should control the symptoms. It's an unpopular belief that love being returned will cure it. This will grow inside you for as long as you live. The disease can easily be fatal.” The doctor was calm as he explained.

“So what? I have a fucking vine inside me?” Nino yelled, hysteria taking over. “Why don't I just keep it trimmed, huh? Like a fucking garden?”

The doctor remained calm. “You have more than just a vine, I'm afraid. A characteristic of Hanahaki is the variety of plants inside a person's body. Some are poisonous, so take care. Read up on anything that comes up. I'll give you the number of a plant specialist.”

 

Nino returned to the vacation home. He was seething. He stormed into the bathroom and locked the door. Sitting down, he bit on the stem of the vine and tore it out of his skin. He dug his fingers in, trying to get it at the root. Silently, he had almost a scary concentration as he pulled the invasive vine out from under his skin. In the end, a blood-soaked, three foot long vine was on the floor. He laid back against the door and sighed.

He tried to calm his breathing and heart rate, barely lucid as he wrapped a bandage around his arm. It was fine. This was fine. 

There was a loud banging on the door. “Shit,” Nino mumbled, rushing to throw the vine out the window before opening the door and pasting on a smile.

Ohno peeked in and looked around the room. “My god Nino, why is there blood on the floor?”

“Ah, I just cut my arm on the windowsill.” He waved his bandaged arm at the leader. Ohno frowned, concerned, but backed off.

“Just be careful,” he said as he walked away.

Nino went back into the bathroom. His skin was crawling. It was driving him insane. He pulled out a razorblade. Leaning against the door, he pulled up his other sleeve.

Wriggling vines grew under his skin. He dragged the razor over one, and watched in horror as the vine freed itself. Flowers, blue and white and yellow, sprouted from his flesh. He wanted to cry. He bit off the stems and spat them onto the floor, hoping he hadn't just eaten anything poisonous. He dug out vines. 

Two hours later, his arm was a bloody mess, the bathroom was a disaster, and he was surrounded by the garden that grew out of him. He leaned back against the door and shook as he wrapped his arm. Then he set to cleaning up. Nobody could know.

 

Nino was locked in his room. He couldn't deal with anyone right now, not even Arashi. Normally this would be something he would tell them. But  _ unrequited love _ ? Nino had never been in love. He would certainly know if he had.

He thought some more. What had triggered this? Dimly, he recalled last night, throwing up bloody leaves. He felt sick again, thorns and petals swirling around in his throat. It had happened after he'd kissed Sho.

Surely he couldn't be in love with Sho. What a stupid idea.

But then he thought about Sho. How he'd looked up to him, how he felt when Sho complimented him, how much he admired him. How he had thought about being kissed by him, and then pushed it to the edges of his mind. How he had thrown up something that looked like crushed leaves about a month ago after Sho had talked about a date he had been on.

Nino felt his skin crawl. He felt around his back and there was definitely something under there, thick and pushing against his skin. It must be the main vine, from which others sprouted. He could feel it growing, taking the space inside of his body. For the first time, he felt afraid.

 

Later Nino went into the living room. Sho waved to him, and he choked on a sudden flow of leaves in his throat. Sho asked how he was, said he wasn't looking like usual, and he had to blow his nose suddenly as mold formed inside his nostrils. Sho told him he hoped he felt better, and he shuddered at the sensation of soft fuzz sprouting on his skin.

 

The next day he told Arashi he was going to a party and meeting a friend, and locked himself in his room. Nobody could know this was happening. He took double the recommended dose of the medication and swallowed it. It was hard to swallow as the pills had to make it through a nest of vines. His hands trembled.

It was too uncomfortable for clothes. He tore off his shirt and pants, shaking feverishly on the bed. He looked at himself. Shadows moved under his skin. He scratched, couldn't help himself, and flowers bloomed in the inevitable wounds. He slowly gave way to nature, becoming something inhuman.

Every time Sho crossed his mind, something new and horrific happened. Tenacious vines broke his skin, over and over. Each time he tore them out with his teeth and frantically tried to dig them out of his skin. Flowers were growing inside him. When he threw up now, there were only bloody leaves and roots. He could hardly breathe, knew there was something growing inside him, choking him.

He was going to die.

 

When he was lucid for those rare portions of time, he could barely think. He could barely breathe. Something was wrapped around his lungs. It filled his throat and choked him. He was no longer throwing up. When he tried to drink, the plants just grew.

His vision was tinted green. He was crying now, wishing his life hadn't gone so horribly wrong, wishing he hadn't fallen for Sho Sakurai. The tears burned, acidic, when they came out. He touched them; they weren't tears at all but tiny blooms. Beautiful on their own. His body was being used as a breeding ground for beauty. 

He knew he wasn't good enough for Sho. He knew deeply inside him that Sho would never, could never love him. Slowly, a root exited his mouth, leaving it open. But it wasn't a root. It was a branch. Leaves and flowers grew in front of his eyes. Branches sprouted out from the original offshoot. It squeezed his lungs when he tried to bite down. Speech was impossible.

All the time he kept scratching and scratching.

 

The void was overtaking him. He was going to die. He had resolved to it now, though. It was inevitable. He simply had to wait. He wished he could still sleep, but something in his brain no longer allowed it. He was lightheaded, wondering if plants were in his brain now too. He wasn't sure he cared. Maybe they would destroy the sick part of him, the part that knew Sho Sakurai.

Vines covered him, ensnaring his form. He couldn't move any part of his body. He no longer drank or ate. He opened his eyes for the first time in days.

His room had become something else entirely. Moss grew on his windows, roots ensnared the ceiling. The tree that had grown from his mouth and crushed his lungs was taking over the room. The door was firmly shut, roots and vines securely around the handle. Grass grew from the floor. Petals littered the bed. And he was nothing more than soil.

Maybe Sho would love him now. Maybe Sho would love him like this, beautiful and poisonous. His nostrils filled with mold and vines, almost entirely preventing breath. He inhaled and exhaled shallowly through his mouth. His throat was ripped to shreds from the tree inside him, the one that had grown from his own loneliness.

 

He hadn't realized that he was deaf until he saw the door slam open, cracking under the force of plants and human strength. Only Sho fit through the hole in the door. At the sight of him, Nino felt a deep sense of despair. The branches grew ever longer. Parts of the walls and ceilings started to fall down. As the rest of Arashi tried to navigate through his destroyed room, climbing over branches, his eyes shut. It was so hard to breathe. He wasn't sure that he wanted to anymore.

A last exhalation, and the roots of his love crushed his heart.

 

He woke up in a hospital bed. Four heads took up his view. “He's awake!” Aiba cried.

“Why didn't you tell us it was this bad, Nino?”

“Who is it?”

“We could have helped you!”

He groaned, the harsh light blinding. His senses started to take in information properly.

“They had to do  _ surgery _ , Nino.  _ Invasive  _ surgery.” Ohno sounded angry, and scared, and relieved all at once. “Nino, you had fucking flowers in your brain!”

“I'm sorry..” Nino mumbled. “Sho…” As the word left his mouth, he was suddenly violently sick. Leaves poured from his mouth. Blood soaked his blankets.

“It's me, isn't it.” Sho came into his vision. “Why wouldn't you tell me? Why?” He looked absolutely devastated.

“Not good enough.” Nino could barely hear his own voice. He felt numb. “Never good enough.”

Sho looked shocked. “Nino, I've always loved you! I thought you  _ knew!” _

Nino blinked. “Huh?”

“Nino!” Sho sounded pissed. He leaned down and kissed Nino softly. He gasped into Sho's mouth, but returned it. The scratching of leaves in his throat diminished. He breathed in the life that Sho was giving him, inhaling his scent.

 

Sho and Nino were given time alone when they got back to the vacation home. Nino aimlessly scratched at the vines crawling under his skin, Sho swatting his arms away. “Don't scratch.” He had to say it dozens of times and even threatened to handcuff Nino.

They went to Nino's room. Sho pinned Nino on the bed, kissing him gently and biting his lips just a little. Vines burst from Nino's neck to ensnare Sho while still allowing a little movement. Nino groaned, vision blurring as blood poured onto the pillow. Sho growled and took off Nino's pants before anything else could grow.

Nino swallowed down leaves as Sho started to open him up. He used some spit, some of Nino's own blood. Shadows of flowers bloomed under his skin, twisting up around his thighs and stomach. Sho stroked them and they shrank away. Nino coughed up poppy seeds.

Sho fucked him, assisted by some kind of lubricant coming from one of the plants inside of Nino. Nino whined, feeling vines twisting around his organs and scratching at Sho's skin. He distantly wondered if the disease could be transferred. But Sho growled when he stopped scratching, so he kept doing it.

When Sho came, pale flowers bloomed from the wound on his wrist. He gasped as he bit them off, coming over his stomach. Sho fell onto him, biting into his neck. His vines were severed and crawled back into his skin.

 

Sho was forever inside him, proof of their love growing within him.


End file.
